Time changes everyting
by Tacroy
Summary: If you could save a life, would you do it? No matter what it would cost you? Starts between season 1 & 2. AU w/OC. Rated T just to be safe
1. Unexpected

**AN: So, this is my first ever Torchwood fanfic. It takes palce between season one and two, mostly AU.**

**Since it's the first one ever I hope that you'll be nice to me. But please tell me what you think of it, and if you want me to continue.**

**Oh, and befor I forget: I (sadly) don't own anything. Except for the girl (yet without a name) and the letters and the story.  
**

* * *

It was a slow night in the hub. Toshiko sat by her computer and randomly clicking on icons hopeing that she would find something to do. Gwen went through some papers that she knew she should have sorted and filed weeks ago. Ianto stood by his precious coffe machine trying out and perfecting a new blend he'd bought. Owen sat in the old couch fliping through some even older magasine. He was reastless, and noone could blame him. They were all restless. And lost. Captain Jack Harkness had now been missing for almost two weeks, and they had no idea of where he could all missed him, and they all wanted to kill him for leaving them without a word.

They were all about to call it a day, when suddenly the computer went of.

"Riftactivity in the park" Tosh said after checking all the numbers and figuers.

"So?" Owen said as he threw the magasine to the table.

"Just wanted to tell you that we might get to work some tonight after all."  
A few minutes later a live recording from the police hotline could be heard from the computers speakers.

"_Cardiff Police, how may I help you?"_

"_There was a bright light in the park just nu. Lit up the whole area. Light as the day I can tell ya. Light as a day."_

"_We'll check it out. Thanks for calling."_

There was a click and Tosh looks at the others.

"Like I said: let's go to work."

Everyone sighs but gets up and walks to the SUV. They have a mission in the park to take care of.

* * *

The team arrives in the park just mere seconds befor the police does. So when the officers leaves their cars Gwen just walks up to them telling them that Torchwood is on it. The officers sighs but goes back into their cars and leaves.

Gwen walks back to her team just as Tosh picks up some detector from her bag. She scans the area with it but only finds a small trace of riftactivity. She points them in the direction and they all follow her.  
It's a quiet night. To quiet. Not a single bird is singing, not a single bug is heard. Not even the wind seems to be alive. The moon is hiding amongst the clouds with all its stars. It's almost as if the night belongs in a ghost story of some kind. Suddenly the thing in Tosh's hand is beeping a little louder, it's found something. And there, under a big oak tree they can vaguely see something lying on the ground. Just in case of danger they pull their guns as they move forward. When they come closer they can see that it's a person lying there. The person doesn't move, not even when they call to get its attention. Owen puts his gun down under protests from Gwen. But he doens't listen, the doctor inside of him takes over. He runs over and falls down on his knees beside the person. He picks up a scan to check for alien bacterias and viruses. When he finds none he dares to toch the person. First he checks for a pulse, and he finds a weak one. He puts his hand on the persons chin and pulls the face so that he can see it. Some dark blond locks falls over his hand as onte of the most beautiful faces is turned against him. The face is soft with strong features; a thin mouth, pointy nose and soft skin. He can't see the eyes since she is unconscious. He scans her again checking for injuries, but finds none there either. So he puts everything away and picks her up. She's almost as light as a feather. He brings her back to the car and places her in the back seat. He sits down himself with her head in his knee. Tosh and Gwen is foreced to share the seat next to the drivers since there is no place for either of them in the back. Ianto smiles to himself, glad that he got the wheels.

* * *

Back at the hub they places the girl in a cell since every device tells them that she came through the rift. Owen makes sure that she still has a puls and that she's breathing properly. Then he leaves her under the camera surveillance and joins up with the rest of the team in the conference room.

When he arrives the others are sitting around the table, and on the screen at the end of the table he can see the girl still lying on her bunk. He sits down with the others.

"Who is she?" Gwen asks while eyeing Owen.

"No idea." He says looking at the screen. "She has no id on her. Nothing to identify her. Just the clothes she's wearing."

"Does she come from the rift?" Ianto asks.

"Every maschine I have tells us that she has something to do with the activity earlier." Tosh says also looking at the screen. "But no indication what so ever on where she's from. Just that she's human."

"That's not much."Gwen sighs. She turns to Owen again. "Any idea of when she'll wake up?"

"None what so ever. Acording to my scans there's nothing wrong with her. Other than the fact that she's unconscious of course. Maybe she just hit her head. In that case she can wake up any minute. It all depends on what happened."

"Then we wait." Gwen says looking at the clock.

Ianto gets up and clears his throat.

"Coffe anyone?"

"As long as it's not decaff." Tosh says rubbing her forhead.  
Ianto smiles and walks away.

* * *

A few hours later there's some movement from the cell. Ianto is the one that sees it on the screen. He looks at the girl as she's trying to sit up. She looks to be in her early twenties, all dressed in white with a long silvergrey coat. She's sitting up and looks tired. All airscans from the cell indicates that there's nothing wrong with her so Ianto calls for Gwen. He tells her that their newest guest is wakeing up.  
So Gwen heads to the cell by herself. No need to frighten the girl with all of them at once.

* * *

The girl sits on her bunk, looking around her in confusion. She's not sure on where she is. A tiny bit of her tells her that this is a familiar place, but she cant recal where. Outside of her cell there's an empty hallway. And everything is quiet. A bit to quiet for her taste. Bur right now she's glad for it, because he has a killer headache. Then she can hear steps getting closer to her. She looks out trough the glasdoors to the hallway and waits for whatever's comeing.

Gwen comes up to the cell and stands infront of it. She smiles and tries to look as kind as possible.

"Hi there." She says to the girl. "How are you feeling? I'm..."

She doesn't come any further with her presentation before the girl interups her.

"Mom?!"  
They both stare in shock at one another.


	2. Some truths and a headache

As soon as she says it, the girl bites her tungue. She wasn't supposed to say that.

Gwen looks at her with disbelielf written all over her.

"Sorry? What did you just say?"

The girl tries her best to look confused and unaware of what she just said.

"What? Oh...nothing...I didn't say anything..."

The only problem is that she was never any good at lying.

"You just called me mom, right?"

The girl closes her eyes and nods.

"Why?"

"You look like her." She tries as she shrugs.

"Don't lie."

"Sorry. Can you please tell me what year it is."

Gwen is even more confused by this question so it takes her a few minutes before she can give the right answer.

"2006."

The girl looks even more shocked. She starts to talk to her self, and Gwen can only hear about half of what she's saying.

"2006!? Shit...to far...way to far...but that explains a lot...younger...much younger...bugger...what to do now?...to far..."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Gwen finally interrups her ranting and the girl looks up with a crooked smile.

"My name is Tracy Cooper. I would shake your hand, but I'm behind glas walls, so it would be hard. And I believe that you wouldn't open the door just to be nice now would you."

Gwen opens her mouth to answer but doesn't come far before the girl closes her eyes in agony and puts her hands to her head to in an atempt to block out some serious pain. And before she knows it the girl is lying unconscious on the floor. So instead of saying what she thought a second earlier, Gwen puts her hand to the comunicator and calls for Owen to come down.

She doesn't have to wait for more than a second before he apears in the door. He had been watching everything on the screen in the conference room, and when he saw the girl faint he hurried down. He opens the cell and falls to his kees befor the girl. When he finds her pulse he looks at her eyes, everything seems normal. So he takes out a miniscan he usually uses in the sickbay and sweeps it over her head. And when he looks at the little screen he knows the problem. He carefully picks her up and places her on the bed once more. Then he turns to Gwen and asks he to bring him a chair. When she comes back with one, Gwen can't help herself any longer and asks him what's wrong with the girl. Owen sits down before he answers.

"She has a ligh concussion. She needs to lay down and take it easy for at least a day, maybe more depending on how serious it is."

"And you're staying here?"

"Yeah. When she wakes up I should be here."

Gwen feels that there is more behind his actions than just doctorly care.

"You don't happen to have tons of papers on your desk that needs to be taken care of?"

"What am I hearing Gwen? Are you accusing me of beeing a slack?"

"Are you?"

"Meh...just a little."

Then he leens back in the chair as Gwen sighs. She leavs him alone in the cell and makes her way up to her own desk to do some work.

* * *

As he sits in the cell next to the girl Owen can't help but think about the conversation she had with Gwen. Sure, he can see some of Gwens features in the girl. But there are others, more distinct, that he can't put his finger on. He knows them from somewhere, but right now he has no clue as to where.

Sudenly the girl starts to move. He gets up and puts some gentle hands on her shoulders.

"You have lay still." He says to her. "You hit your head pretty bad, gave you a concussion. That's why your head hurts. And I can imagine that you'd like to throw up too."

A weak smile appears on her lips and she opens her eyes. They have every colour possible, but the hazel in them is the dominant one. Owen smiles back and sits back down on his chair.

"So..."he begins, not really sure on what to say.

"You want to know if what I said to Gwen is true." She says and puts words on what he can't. He nods and looks at her.

"Since I can't keep my moth shut and had to say the one thing I wasn't suposed to I can just as well continue. Yes, it's true Owen."

"You know my name?"

"Yeah. Uncle Owen, the funnest doctor in the world. You're kind of my best friend where I come from."

"The future?"

"Aha."

"Uncle Owen?"

She looks at him and smiles even bigger.

"Always called you that."

"Okay. So where in the future are you from, and what are you doing here?"

She looks away and closes her eyes. But not before he could see the unmistakeble pain of memories in her eyes.

"I would prefer to keep that to myself. It's not good for you to know to much about the future. I could mess the whole thing up. In that case I can't go back to my own time, cause it wouldn't exist just cause I messed it up."

"Well, if you came from the future and back here it must mean that in the time you came from we allready know about it cause we've allready met once before when it was 2006."

"Please stop," she groans. "You said something like that in my time, and it gave me a headache then too."

"Sorry. You'll need to sleep right now. I have some pills to help you if you want."

She nods slowly. Owen takes out some sleeping pills and gives them to her.

Soon she's fast aslepp in a dreamless sleep.

Owen sits back on his chair and stays by her side all night, just in case that she would wake up and need him.

* * *

**AN: So...that's the second chapter. I would really love to hear what you think about it. If you have any ideas on where this story will go. I think I know, but I'm always open for suggestions. **

**Next chapter will be up as soon as possible, hope you'll tune in then.**

**Love ya all**

**XOXO  
**


	3. Fancy a game?

**AN: new chapter up. Hope you like. **

* * *

Gwen sitts in the conference room, staring at the screen where she can see Owen sitting next to the girl. She can't help but to think about what the girl told her. There's a small cough behind her and she turns around. Ianto stands in the door with a smoking cup of coffe.

"Thought you would need something strong" he says and hands her the cup.

"You're a lifesaver Ianto."

She sips on the coffe as Ianto walks past her, closer to the screen. She looks at him as he tilts his head and she can see that he's thinking of something.

"Penny for you thoughts." She says with a smile. He looks a second longer before he turns to her.

"I heard what she said. Me and Owen both did. Do you think it's true? Do you think she really is from the future?"

Gwen shrugs as she walks up to him.

"I don't know. Maybe. But you have to agree, there are some similarities between us."

Ianto just nods.

"But the dominant features belongs to someone else." He says and Gwen can't do anything but agree, she can see them too. The dustblond hair is not from her. But it's the eyes that are the most dominant in her face. And it's something about them that's familiar, a small shimmer in them.

They both stand still in silence for a moment, lost in their own thoughts, before they go back to work.

* * *

Some hours later Owen wakes up from a deep slumber on the chair by some irritating pokes on his leg.

"What?" he snaps. Everyone who knows Owen knows that he doesn't like to be woken up by anything, especially pokes.

"Sorry Owen. But you never woke up. I've been awake for a while now, and I'm hungry."

Owen yawns and stretches before he gets up and walks over to her.

"How's you head?"

"It's better. I'm not sensitive to sounds anylonger and I don't feel nauseous either. I just want food."

"Clam down. I will get you something. Just have to check so you're okay first. Can you tell me what day it is?"

And that question is met by a look telling him that he's an idiot.

"No, cause I don't know. I can tell you it's 2006, but nothing more."

"Sorry, forgot. Can you tell me your full name?"

She sighs before giving any answer.

"Tracy Anne Cooper."

"Age?"

"You don't ask a girl about her age. Haven't your mother taught you that?"

"Tracy, please. I need the information for the paperwork you've given me."

"Fine. But call me Tace, everyone does it."

"Okay, Tace. How old are you?"

"25 in october."

"Born?"

"Cardiff."

"Parents?"

She shoots him an angry look.

"You have the information you need. I told you yesterday that I won't tell you more about the future than that I'm from it. You have no need to know more."

Owen just shrugs and gets up.

"Well, it was worth a try."

He leavs the cell and locks it behind him.

"Hey! I want food!" she yells at him as he walks off.

"I need to leave in order to get you something. I'll be back."

And with those words he disapears from her sight. She can hear the big metal door close behind him and she knows that she's all alone in the cell block. She carefully sits up and leans against the wall. She strokes her left arm, and right above the elbow she can feel that little machine that made it possible for her to travel. She was worried that they had found it, but she hid it to well before taking off. A small smile finds it way to her lips and she pulls her knees up under her chin.

She can't help but wonder about what impact she's made in the timeline with showing up here, and with beeing so stupid as to reveal the one secret she knew she had to keep. But she had to come back. She had her reasons. And she was aware of the consequences of doing so. But it's like she said to herself so many times before: if you knew how to save someone you love, would you do it? And her answer is always yes. Yes, she would do it. She would do anything to save a loved one, no matter the costs.

* * *

A few moments later she can hear the big door open again, and she can feel the scent of coffe. She looks over to the glasdoor as Owen comes up to it and opens. In his hands he's got a tray with a cup of coffe and some sandwitches with ham and cheese.

"Look what Ianto had made for you."

The smile on Tracys face grows bigger by that name.

"Aw. He's so sweet. And he's made his perfect coffe."

"How do you know that?" Owen asks as he puts the tray down on the bunk.

"I can smell it." And with that she begins to eat. She eats like she's never seen food before.

Own looks at her as she eats and smiles. It's quite fun to watch people eat sometimes. They're so defensless and vulnerable. It's touching.

When the plate is empty Tracy lets out a small burp. She blushes and excuses herself. Owen waves it of and takes out a deck of playing cards.

"Fancy a game?" he says while shuffling the cards.

"Didn't you have a report to write?"

"Neh...that can wait."

Tracy just laughs at him.

"Still the same lazy Owen."

"Technically I _am_ lazy, and where you're from I'm _still_ lazy."

"What ever. Just deal the cards."

* * *

**So...what do you think? I want to know everything, as long as it's related to this story ;P  
Next chapter will come as soon as it's written. **


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